“Tell everyone that there is still a place in the Kingdom of Romania which has not bowed to Communism. As long as our heads are on our shoulders, this corner of the country will be free. Tell the people not to lose faith, for the day will come when the whole of Romania will be free. Pray God for it, so help us God.” --Ioan Gavrila Ogoranu, Romanian anti-communist fighter 1923-2006

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Ashgar Jilow used to sell stab-proof vests to nightclub bouncers and security guards at his London military surplus store.

Now his clients are kids as young as 10 who fear they're going to be knifed at school or on the street.

``Some of them are so tiny the vests don't even fit under their school uniforms,'' said Jilow, 55, who sells about three of the 120-pound ($230) vests a week. ``Parents don't know what to do to keep their kids safe.''

Every week in London 52 teenagers are victims of knife crime, according to the Metropolitan Police. A child is stabbed to death in Britain every two weeks and knife killings outnumber gun homicides three to one, said Norman Brennan, a police officer and director of the Victims of Crime Trust.

``Knife crime is out of control and kids carry them like fashion accessories,'' Brennan said. The youngest child to be suspended from school for brandishing a blade was just five.

Last week two teenagers were knifed to death in London. Adam Regis, 15, was attacked March 17 on his way home from the movies in Newham, an east London borough that is being regenerated by the 2012 Olympics. He called his girlfriend for help as he bled to death, police said.

Three days earlier, Kodjo Yenga, 16, was stabbed to death as a gang of boys and girls chanted ``Kill him, kill him'' in Hammersmith, west London, where homes sell for more than 1 million pounds, eyewitnesses said.

But fear not: the British Government is taking steps to protect its young subjects from the wave of violent crime: more hereI'm pretty sure the new knife ban will work just as good at making law abiding people easy targets for criminals and murderers - just as the ill-famed firearm ban did a decade ago.

With every day passing, this Monty Python skit is becoming more and more prophetic for the future of England: